Services > Tooling & Prototype Support

Tooling and Prototype Support

Nicolet Plastics sources tooling to meet your needs through trusted suppliers, both domestic and offshore. Tools are warranted for the quoted life. The exacting standards of our tooling designers are applied to the sourcing, design review, receipt, and inspection of your tool investment.

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Project Management

We provide complete project management and sourcing of 3rd party tools through trusted offshore and domestic mold making partners.

Experience

Knowledge from our mold-making origins and expertise from our long-time tool designers allows us to build valued partnerships with our customers.

Routine Maintenance

Precision molding relies on tool maintenance at regular intervals. We automatically schedule maintenance to keep your tool in top notch shape.

Prototype Support

We’re a proud Carbon 3D production partner. Get end-use quality parts without tooling. Ideal for both prototypes and low-volume production.

Routine Tool Maintenance

All customer tools receive routine preventive maintenance at appropriate intervals, assured by automatic scheduling in Nicolet Plastic’s enterprise software. Nicolet Plastics has a fully equipped tool room and a staff of tool makers and trained maintenance staff to perform both consistent mold upkeep.

Mercury Marine is very selective in who they use as suppliers. Companies must meet the high quality standards and flexibility that Mercury Marine requires. Nicolet Plastics has consistently met these criteria.
Nicolet Plastics and Mercury Marine engineering and purchasing departments worked together to redesign and prototype an existing part. Each prototype met all the specialized criteria, and through combined innovation Nicolet Plastics was able to move the part into production. The cost came in very low, allowing Mercury Marine to save money and use a better quality part.
Nicolet Plastics adapts very quickly to change, can do custom work and provides each client with the personal attention they deserve.

Matt Demmin, Packaging Engineer | Mercury Marine

The first project I ever worked on with Nicolet Plastics, Inc. was in the mid 80’s, and since then the partnership has only grown stronger. Nicolet is willing to try anything to produce the results the client is looking for.
They are on the cutting edge with tooling, equipment and design capabilities. Their design review team provides excellent input; they are creative solution-finders and are very easy to work with. NPI delivers a timely response on product and a quick turn around on tools.
When challenged with difficult mold designs Nicolet is able to simplify the process, thereby reducing costs. Utilizing their in-house rapid prototype machine allows the toolmaker to better understand how the tool needs to be created. One quality control advantage that Nicolet provides for the customer is their storyboards, which detail the proper measurements and color specifications of each piece. Through this self-certification process, Nicolet offers customers the assurance of knowing that each piece is manufactured to exact specifications. I have come to expect that quality work will always be there. You don’t realize how good Nicolet is until you try to compare quality and price somewhere else.
From the President of the company to the guys in shipping, the folks at Nicolet are host, hardworking and down to earth, some of the best people I’ve ever worked with.

Project Manager, Mechanical Engineering | MRI Devices

I have been working with Nicolet Plastics for 13 years and have never been disappointed. The people at Nicolet Plastics have a true open door policy, and extreme flexibility. They want to be involved in the entire process of your project so they can truly understand the objectives that need to be fulfilled. In my experience, it is rare to find a plastic injection molding company that has the combination of in-house tooling and molding that they do. The quality produced is phenomenal.
Nicolet Plastics is an outstanding company. They are knowledgeable, easy to work with, provide exceptional customer service, produce high quality parts, provide flexible lead times, are always competitive on price and do precision color matching work."
Nicolet Plastics is a cutting edge company that is always willing to take on a challenge.

Pat Kilps, Engineering Manager | Quest Technologies

Time-to-market is critical to being competitive. We pushed Nicolet Plastics to provide tools within a very aggressive timeline and they delivered samples in just six weeks.

Dean Walters | Invivo Corporation

Tool Transfer

Mold transfers are inherently challenging as it potentially disrupts production, so you’ll want a supplier that’s responsive and well-versed at project management. You can count on Nicolet Plastics to facilitate a tool transfer that minimizes lost production time.

A smooth transfer supports improved product quality, pricing, service and lead time. Technical challenges can emerge during the process, but Nicolet Plastics knows how to respond to unforeseen circumstances.

Plastic Part Prototype Support

Nicolet Plastics offers several prototyping services for your plastic part design:

Carbon DSL technology: end-use quality parts without tooling. Learn more
Conventional 3D printing prototypes
Bridge (temporary) tooling, in-house single-cavity mold making
CNC Machining

Prototype Parts

We believe that it’s important to test your market by first testing your product. Nicolet Plastics offers you an affordable method of testing with prototype parts that are:

Available in a variety of materials
Widely available in machined versions
Helpful in assisting you proof out the design prior to building production tooling
Prepared to make a flawless entrance into the market

Prototype Tooling

Of course, every design needs proofing before hitting the mass market. This is a small step that can generate very large returns. Nicolet Plastics’ prototype tooling offers you a low-cost alternative means of:

Producing a limited quantity of parts so you can test with actual molded parts that will exhibit all the same physical properties of the production parts
Proofing the conceptual part design for product improvements
Narrowing down material classifications to determine what materials work best

At Nicolet Plastics, your first small steps are a critical part of the larger leap forward. Make a seamless transition to mass market with Nicolet Plastics by contacting us today!